It's been a while since I posted. Anyway, my Red 2010 LT2 was a victim of the Hurricane. The electronics were totally fried. My street had 6 feet of ocean in it. I really loved that car. Had no problems with it. Ran great.

Anyway, I love the new Malibu, but it was a little bigger than I wanted. I thought the 2010 was a little bigger car than I wanted and I heard the 2013 was increased in size by 5 inches. So I decided to get a Cruze LT1. I can't believe how advanced the Cruze is. It has Chevy My Link, Bluetooth, and a whole mess of other features. Really happy with it. I just got it today. Just haven't got a chance to enjoy it due to everything I've been through.

The whole experience of losing my car, my rental apartment in my house was destroyed along with my new furnace and hot water heater, etc. It's really left me no time to enjoy the new car. I've never gotten a new car under these circumstances, so to say the least, I'm major burnt out.

It was a pleasure being a member of the Malibu Forum and I wish everyone the best of luck with their Malibus.

That's the first time I've heard someone complain the 2013 Malibu is too big. Most complaints are of it being smaller.

In fact according to the specs from Edmonds the 2013 is about 2.7 inches wider, .3 inches shorter in length than the 2010, .5 inches taller than the 2010 and it has about a 4.5 inch shorter wheelbase than the 2010.
So basically the car got wider but a shorter wheelbase.

The 2013 loses .4 inches of headroom and .1 inches of front legroom compared to the 2010 but then gains 2 inches of front hip room and 1.6 inches front shoulder room
For the passenger seat the 2013 loses .8 inches of leg room but then gains .3 inches headroom, 2.2 inches of hip room and 3.2 inches of shoulder room.
So again it looks like the car is wider gaining more room that way.

Now I've never been in a 2010 Malibu but I did have a 2006 Malibu that had 38.5 inches rear leg room and the 2013 with 1.7 inches less legroom feels like it has a whole lot less room.

Anyways sorry to hear of all the problems you had but enjoy that new Cruze, I know how nice the Chevy My Link is.

There were other issues as well. Getting gas was a problem due to the storm, so I wanted a more economical car. I had the 4 cylinder with the Malibu. I did reasonably well with my usual mix of highway and local driving. Averaged anywhere from 20-22 MPG. But with local driving only, I got anywhere from 11-14 MPG. There's still gas rationing going on here.

When I first saw the Cruze, I called it a Mini-Malibu. So I always liked the look of the Cruze, because it reminded me of the Malibu. I don't do really long trips anymore, so having a bigger car for the highway is not really an issue.

Finally, between the loss of my car, the detruction of my rental apartment, the loss of my new heating system and hot water heater, I'm into a lot of money here. If I'm lucky, insurance will cover about half of the expenses, so that leaves me holding the bag for quite a bit. I saved about $7K on the Cruze, so every little bit helps. With all the extras the Cruze comes with, I feel like I'm at the same level as the Malibu that I had and with the touch screen and My Link system, it even has more in certain respects. I'm lucky I got a car at all. They only had 2 Cruze LT1's in stock. My dealership told me that 300,000 cars were lost as a result of the storm. I didn't think it was that much, but I'll tell you that every car was destroyed in the area I live in. I couldn't even get a rental car, so I needed to get a new car ASAP.

Finally, with the way I feel now, I wanted a car more for transporation than anything else. I told the salesman this is the first time that I'm not excited about getting a new car, but once I saw how nice the Cruze is, I'm a little more excited than I thought I would be.

My family has really gone through a lot. We lived without electricity, heat, and hot water for over 2 weeks and we had snow during that time period.
Still feeling the psychological effects.

That's the first time I've heard someone complain the 2013 Malibu is too big. Most complaints are of it being smaller.

In fact according to the specs from Edmonds the 2013 is about 2.7 inches wider, .3 inches shorter in length than the 2010, .5 inches taller than the 2010 and it has about a 4.5 inch shorter wheelbase than the 2010.
So basically the car got wider but a shorter wheelbase.

The 2013 loses .4 inches of headroom and .1 inches of front legroom compared to the 2010 but then gains 2 inches of front hip room and 1.6 inches front shoulder room
For the passenger seat the 2013 loses .8 inches of leg room but then gains .3 inches headroom, 2.2 inches of hip room and 3.2 inches of shoulder room.
So again it looks like the car is wider gaining more room that way.

Now I've never been in a 2010 Malibu but I did have a 2006 Malibu that had 38.5 inches rear leg room and the 2013 with 1.7 inches less legroom feels like it has a whole lot less room.

Anyways sorry to hear of all the problems you had but enjoy that new Cruze, I know how nice the Chevy My Link is.

Sometimes, these saleman have no clue. He told me the 2013 Malibu was 5 inches longer than the previous generation.

Wow, I can't even imagine going through all that.
When hurricane Isabel came though here in 2003, there was a lot of damage and many people were without electricity for weeks. We got lucky and had our power back on the next day. A huge tree in the yard was toppled but we got lucky again and it fell inbetween the house and the detached garage, about the only damage it did was that the very top branches of the tree scratched up and put a few small dents in the hood of my wife's 1 year old PT Cruiser.

Like DrivenDaily said, I hope you get back up and running soon. Enjoy that Cruze and I would be interested in a review of it whenever you get time.

Here's hoping you're back on your feet real soon, and that the insurance money goes a long way to making it better. Stop by again sometime and let us know how the Cruze is treatin' ya.

Thanks so much. I really appreciate that. I did get a chance to do some driving today and the Cruze drives completely different than the Malibu. The steering was much firmer on the Malibu (it had Electronic PS), I liked the brakes on the Malibu, much "mushier" on the Cruze. The ride on the Cruze seems softer. I had the 4 cylinder on the Malibu and the pickup from a dead stop was excellent. I have the upgraded TurboCharged engine on the Cruze and the pickup doesn't seem to be as good. But I have a total of 25 miles on the car, so that may change.

I got some nice extras with the Cruze. I like the 7 inch touchscreen with My Link. Some nice features there like 5 day weather forecasts, traffic info, etc. I also like the rearview camera which is something I always said the Malibu needed desparately. Also have remote start and Bluetooth which I had on the Malibu.

Anyone know what else the My Link does? Haven't had a chance to read the manual yet.

Also, I know this is not a Cruze forum. I didn't register there yet. But does anyone happen to know where the trunk release is for the Cruze? I just can't find it. I've been using the release on the key.

Wow, I can't even imagine going through all that.
When hurricane Isabel came though here in 2003, there was a lot of damage and many people were without electricity for weeks. We got lucky and had our power back on the next day. A huge tree in the yard was toppled but we got lucky again and it fell inbetween the house and the detached garage, about the only damage it did was that the very top branches of the tree scratched up and put a few small dents in the hood of my wife's 1 year old PT Cruiser.

Like DrivenDaily said, I hope you get back up and running soon. Enjoy that Cruze and I would be interested in a review of it whenever you get time.

This hurricane was so unusual. It was barely a category 1, not much rain and average wind. It was the storm surge that did the damage. Almost like a tsunami. I had 6 feet of ocean in front of my house within 5 minutes and I live about a half a mile from the Ocean. That 6 feet of water ended up in my tenant's apartment. Just a terrible disaster that destroyed every car in my area. This seems to be worse than Katrina, because 5 states were affected by this hurricane.

Thanks for your best wishes. I already wrote a little review on the Cruze in one of these threads. So far, it seems like a really nice car. A lot of extras and value for the price.

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